Swiss Teen Antonio Djakovic Posts 200 Free National Record

2021 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The men’s 200m freestyle was one of the most anticipated finals of these FINA Short Course Championships. Already this morning out of the heats the top 8 swimmers were only separated by just over half a second.

Ultimately tonight, Korea’s 18-year-old phenom Hwang Sunwoo crushed lifetime best to take the gold in 1:41.60, while Aleksandr Shchegolev of Russia and Lithuania’s Danas Rapsys wrangled up silver and bronze in times of 1:41.63 and 1:41.73, respectively.

Although he landed off the podium, another teenager in 19-year-old Antonio Djakovic of Switzerland produced a new national record en route to capturing 6th place.

Djakovic produced a morning swim of 1:42.82 to tie Rapsys as the 6th seeded swimmer of the prelims. Then tonight, Djakovic split 50.00/52.47 to register a new lifetime best of 1:42.47. Both times overtook the previous national standard of 1:42.83 which Dominik Meichtry put on the books in 2009.

This is the 2nd Meichtry short course record Djakovic has overtaken here in Abu Dhabi. The teen already collected bronze here in the 400m free, posting a new Swiss mark of 3:36.83 on night 1.

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Go go go
2 years ago

I thought Sun Woo went 1:41.1 against Sates a little while back. Might be mistaken, but what a race nonetheless!

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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